Author: Sarah Miles

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All Hail Nigella!

It is with much giggling I must tell you about the Power of Nigella!

Last week, circa Shrove Tuesday, I replied to a Nigella tweet, extolling the virtues of her pancakes.
Nigella retweeted this (gawd bless her).
My humble blog only averages about 20 hits a day.  After that retweet, in 24 hours, I had 953 blog hits!
This has kept me smiling all week.
I am, naturally, back to normal now.  And this blog is, as I state to your right, just a little outlet for me and my questionable cooking.
So sincere thanks to my loyal followers and hello to the near thousand of you that checked in and promptly checked out again!  And, of course, thank you to the lady herself ;)
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Homemade Pizza

I am prone to fads, and many of them are cooking-related. One was cupcakes. I investigated courses, bought books, nozzles and piping bags galore and baked myself (and my family) up a dress size. Then my attention has diverted to a different type of cuisine…pasta. I am a bit of a pasta snob. Having cooked dried pasta for years, I moved on to fresh pasta and now won’t eat anything else. I fear that the making of fresh pasta will exacerbate this further and soon that will be all I will allow. I have already gone this way with pizza, as have my children who now turn their nose up at shop bought pizzas and demand my homemade pizza instead.
pizza Collage
Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients:
  • 2 tsps dried ‘easy bake’ yeast
  • 3 cups (420g) OO/strong white bread flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp oil (I like using garlic oil for extra taste)
  • 1 cup (250ml) + 2 tbsp warm water
 IMG_0229
  1. Put all the ingredients into a mixer in the order above. I have a kitchenaid and use the dough hook then mix on speed 1 for 10 minutes. If using a bread machine, simply put it on the dough cycle. For other mixers…or by hand, you’ll have to use your intuition!
  2. When it is elastic and the dough springs back when you poke it, put it in a greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave for at least half an hour to rise.
  3. Flour (or semolina gives a pizza restaurant finish) your worktop and divide the dough up as you wish. I usually use half of mine to form one, big flat pizza base and roll up the rest into small balls to make doughballs. Sometimes, I make a small pizza for each of us. To form your base you can roll with a rolling pin to get the basic disc-shape and then tease out the dough. I lay it over the back of my hand and then use the other hand to pull out the dough; then jiggle it around on my hand and strectch again, repeating until the base is formed. One day I will be able to throw it around like a pro, but until then I take the safe route!
  4. Spread over a thin layer of passata and then sprinkle with grated mozzarella and toppings of your choice.
  5. Bake at 200ºC for about 10 mins, but check according to your oven. The doughballs take a shorter amount of time. You can buy garlic butter to dip them into or make your own.
 IMG_0247
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Poached Eggs #2

Yesterday was my birthday and I got a fabulous Imperia pasta machine and also the Julia Child cookery Bible ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’.  It was to this I turned for poached egg advice.  Ah, Julia!  She came up trumps!  Following her instructions to the tbsp my results were much improved, in fact Husband said his egg was perfect!

Looked better ‘in the flesh’.  Honestly…

Julia Child’s recipe is:

  • Pour 2 inches of water into a 8/10″ frying pan and bring to a simmer.  For every pint of water used add a tbsp of vinegar.
  • Break a fresh egg into a saucer and as close to the water as possible, let it fall in.  Immediately and gently push the white over the yolk with a wooden spoon for 3 secs.  Maintain the water at simmering point and repeat with any other eggs.
  • After 4 minutes remove egg with slotted spoon and test with finger – the white should be set and yolk soft to touch.
  • Place egg in cold water.  This washes off the vinegar and stops the egg cooking.
Hope this is useful!
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Poached Eggs

I don’t know what possessed me to try and cook poached eggs for breakfast.  Well, I do.  It was the Waitrose magazine coaxing me into trying one of those cheffy, swirly poached eggs that look so elegant.
Mine looked like this.

And this was my second attempt.  I did actually eat the first one, but it was practically hard boiled and in much the same stringy state as this one.
I am not sure what I’m doing wrong.  This frustrates me.  When I follow a recipe to the letter, why doesn’t it work?  Water was simmering, water was swirled to the point of spinning over the sides of the pan, drops of vinegar in egg, egg slipped in to the middle….and instantly it dissipated throughout the water looking like I’d just sneezed egg white into the pan.
No doubt on another misguided day I will try again, but until then I will stick to these:

They might come out looking like a pair of boobs *sniggers* but at least they cook properly.

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Packed Lunches

What is it about packed lunches that make me want to shut my head in the fridge?  At school they were a treat saved for school trips.  The trepidation I felt as I peeked inside my tuppaware box to see what my mother had rustled up, was second to none.  It was never anything to write home about, but to me it was wonderful and integral to the thrill of the the trip (only floored by the visit to the gift shop).

seriously?

Today, packed lunches are the norm.  And I now have to make them for my 2 year old to take into nursery.  This is the same 2 year old that only eats weetabix.  She spent the last 5 months at nursery having their cooked lunches and never ate a thing.  I am sure they blame me for poor dietary habits, but the other two children were the same at that age, except with shreddies.  The health visitor assured me it was fine.  I was not so sure…

Anyway, undeterred I saw a book entitled ‘Healthy Lunchboxes for Kids’ which I guiltily bought in order to revolutionise my lunchbox packing skills.  Shouldn’t have bothered.  I am a mother of three and I defy anyone to get their kids to eat 3 bean soup or pepper stuffed wraps for lunch, let alone have the time and equipment to prepare and store it all.  The only redeeming feature was that they used the same Cath Kidston tins that I have and they looked better than I thought.  I need a book entitled ‘Packed lunches for kids who refuse to eat anything but wholegrain cereal’.  Now, that would be a useful addition to my heaving recipe bookshelves.  I’m afraid the other one is destined for next week’s NCT sale….

If you have any normal suggestions to help me out please let me know!

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Pancakes

Pancakes have lost their allure in my house.  Well, for me anyway.  This is mainly due to the fact that Husband cooks them most mornings for the kids. They nag; he caves. I clear up the mess.  Fear not though, we shall have them Shrove Tuesday with traditional jif lemon oozing from every pore.

My husband always makes the American style pancakes, akin to scotch pancakes in my opinion.  I prefer the more crepe-style ones; thinner, bigger and for me, much nicer to scoff!

Of course, the recipe I use for mine is a Nigella one…simple, quick and scrummy.  I always have them with lemon and sugar, but there is no end of possibilities. The kids go for chocolate spread or syrup but one of the nicest fillings I’ve had was cherry. Replicated by me via a can of cherry pie filling, warmed gently and spooned over the pancake. There was the temptation to add some squirty cream but then I remembered what it tastes of (nothing) so opted for without.

Ingredients taken from ‘How to Eat‘ it is merely:

125g ‘OO” flour (or plain if you like) 
300ml milk 
1 egg

Whisk them all up together and hey presto! (Nigella does have a bit more method than that, but I just whisk!).  She also recommends resting the batter; alas, I am far too hungry to do that and use it straight away.  One thing you must have (and I was told this method by a bona fide chef) is a hot, quality pan, else they’ll stick.  Then, drizzle about a teaspoon of oil in it to get hot then using a big scrunchy ball of kitchen towel, I wipe it out so you are left with an almost invisible layer of oil coating the pan.  I repeat this roughly every 5 pancakes, depending on how much the previous pancake stuck!
Try to avoid this when tossing….

Happy eating!